High School U.S. History practice questions and exam guide

Bartolomé de las Casas is known for:

1. leading the conquest of Peru
2. founding the first permanent English colony
3. defending the encomienda system
4. condemning Spanish abuse of Native peoples

Answer: D — condemning Spanish abuse of Native peoples

D) Correct — The priest wrote detailed accounts of cruelty and argued against the encomienda. A) Was Francisco Pizarro. B) He was a Spanish priest. C) Reverses his stance; he attacked it.

Maryland was founded partly as a haven for:

1. English Catholics seeking a refuge
2. English Quakers
3. Puritan dissenters
4. debtors

Answer: A — English Catholics seeking a refuge

A) Correct — Lord Baltimore's colony passed the Toleration Act of 1649. B) Is Pennsylvania. C) Is Massachusetts. D) Is Georgia.

The Stamp Act (1765) taxed:

1. imported tea
2. newspapers, legal documents, playing cards and other printed paper
3. sugar and molasses
4. imported glass, lead, paint and other British goods

Answer: B — newspapers, legal documents, playing cards and other printed paper

B) Correct — It was the first direct tax on the colonists and sparked wide protest. A) Was taxed under the Townshend and Tea Acts. C) Was the Sugar Act. D) Were taxed by the Townshend Acts.

Jefferson opposed the national bank because he believed:

1. it would help farmers too much
2. the Constitution didn't authorize it
3. it should be run directly by the president
4. banks were needed only in wartime

Answer: B — the Constitution didn't authorize it

B) Correct — He read the Constitution strictly; Hamilton pointed to the necessary-and-proper clause. A) He feared it would favor merchants and bankers. C) Isn't his argument. D) Isn't his argument.

The Battle of Gettysburg (1863) was a turning point because it:

1. let the Union capture the Confederate capital
2. brought Britain into the war
3. was the last battle of the war
4. ended Lee's last invasion of the North

Answer: D — ended Lee's last invasion of the North

D) Correct — Confederate losses there were never made up. A) Richmond fell in 1865. B) Britain stayed out. C) The war went on two more years.

Under sharecropping:

1. farmers worked land for a share of the crop
2. freedpeople received free land from the government
3. planters paid fixed wages
4. farmers owned their land outright

Answer: A — farmers worked land for a share of the crop

A) Correct — High interest on supplies often trapped sharecroppers in debt. B) The promised land never came. C) Isn't sharecropping. D) They worked land owned by others.

Populists called for the free coinage of silver to:

1. shrink the money supply
2. keep the gold standard and make credit tighter
3. lower crop prices
4. expand the money supply and ease farm debt

Answer: D — expand the money supply and ease farm debt

D) Correct — More money in circulation would raise prices and make debts easier to pay. A) Reverses it. B) Was their opponents' position. C) They wanted higher prices.

The Great Migration was:

1. Black Americans moving from the South to Northern cities
2. European immigrants settling in the South
3. settlers moving to the West
4. Northern factory workers moving south for farm jobs and land

Answer: A — Black Americans moving from the South to Northern cities

A) Correct — They sought jobs and escape from Jim Crow, especially during and after World War I. B) Isn't the meaning. C) Isn't the meaning. D) Reverses the direction.

Hoover's response to the Depression relied mainly on:

1. large federal relief payments to the jobless
2. nationalizing the banks
3. raising taxes on the poor
4. voluntary action and limited federal aid

Answer: D — voluntary action and limited federal aid

D) Correct — He backed some programs but opposed direct relief to individuals. A) Came under FDR. B) Neither president did that. C) Isn't his approach.

World War II in Europe began in 1939 when Germany invaded:

1. France
2. Poland
3. the Soviet Union
4. Czechoslovakia

Answer: B — Poland

B) Correct — Britain and France then declared war on Germany. A) Fell in 1940. C) Was invaded in 1941. D) Was taken in stages in 1938–39, before the war began.

The Soviet Union dissolved in:

1. 1991
2. 1989
3. 1985
4. 1962

Answer: A — 1991

A) Correct — Its republics became independent countries. B) Is when the Berlin Wall fell. C) Is when Gorbachev took power. D) Is the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The Kent State shootings of 1970 came during protests against:

1. segregated schools
2. the expansion of the war into neighboring Cambodia
3. the Watergate break-in and the cover-up
4. the draft lottery's end

Answer: B — the expansion of the war into neighboring Cambodia

B) Correct — National Guard troops killed four students in Ohio. A) Isn't the cause. C) Came in 1972. D) Isn't the cause.

The 2008 financial crisis began with:

1. the bursting of the dot-com stock bubble
2. the 1929 stock market crash
3. an oil embargo
4. the collapse of the housing bubble

Answer: D — the collapse of the housing bubble

D) Correct — Risky mortgages and bets on them brought down major banks. A) Was 2000–01. B) Was the Great Depression. C) Was 1973.

What were causes of the Great Depression?

Stock speculation, bank failures, overproduction, weak agricultural sector, unequal wealth distribution, high tariffs (Smoot-Hawley), and tight monetary policy.

What was Reconstruction (1865–1877)?

The post-Civil War era of rebuilding the South and integrating freed African Americans into society.

What did the Affordable Care Act (2010) do?

Expanded health insurance coverage through subsidies, Medicaid expansion, and a marketplace; banned denial for pre-existing conditions.

What did the Civil Rights Act of 1964 do?

Outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in public accommodations, employment, and federal programs.

What was the Marshall Plan (1948)?

U.S. program providing $13 billion in economic aid to rebuild Western Europe after WWII.

What were the Roaring Twenties?

1920s era of economic prosperity, jazz, flappers, mass culture, and speculation that ended in the 1929 crash.